SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Caribbean governments have renewed insurance policies that provide emergency cash to islands in case of natural disaster.
Sixteen Caribbean nations and territories pool their risk through the program, slashing individual premiums by 40 percent. Governments have purchased policy deductibles that would reimburse them for damage incurred during hurricanes or earthquakes over a 20 year period.
The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, established by the World Bank in 2006, has assets of US$132.5 million, tapping both donations, international reinsurance and capital markets to cover its policies, program administrators said in a statement Friday.
The wealthy British enclave of Bermuda, one of the 16 policyholders, donated US$500,000 to the facility last week, the statement said.
In announcing the donation, Bermuda Premier Ewart Brown said the facility mirrors his island's commitment to disaster mitigation. "Disaster risk must be managed long before the disaster," he said.
The insurance pool last year paid out approximately US$1 million to Dominica and St. Lucia after a magnitude-7.4 earthquake shook the Eastern Caribbean in November.
Caribbean leaders sought World Bank assistance in establishing the fund after Hurricane Ivan caused widespread devastation in 2004.
Participating governments are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos Islands.
